Finding cubes that touch air.. [Searching elements in a vector] - actionscript-3

Question

Using Away3D...I have this array of cubes I generated. This array of cubes are in a "Sector" that contains 50x50x50 cubes. The only thing the sector contains is the cubes coordinates and color. They are stored inside the Cube class. I only want to render the ones that touch air (currently "air" the "color" 0xFFFFFF)
I've tried this...an interesting number of ways...
My current method (slowest) was to make vector3D points for each object, and then use indexOf on a set of Vector3Ds containing the points of all the cubes in my "Sector".
public function renderSector(sector:Sector):void
{
trace("init sector render..");
allCubes = sector.cubes;
//Render only things touching air.
for each (var cube:Cube in sector.cubes)
{
//If the cube is not an air block
if (cube.color != 0xFFFFFF)
{
var topEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x + 1, cube.y, cube.z);
var bottomEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x, cube.y +1, cube.z);
var leftEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x + 1, cube.y, cube.z +1);
var rightEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x - 1, cube.y, cube.z);
var frontEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x, cube.y -1, cube.z);
var backEstimate:Vector3D = new Vector3D(cube.x, cube.y, cube.z - 1);
//If the cube is next to an air block
if (checkForAir(topEstimate) || checkForAir(bottomEstimate) || checkForAir(leftEstimate) || checkForAir(rightEstimate) || checkForAir(frontEstimate) || checkForAir(backEstimate))
{
var meshCube:Mesh = new Mesh(new CubeGeometry(10, 10, 10), new ColorMaterial(cube.color));
meshCube.x = (sector.x * 125000) + (10 * cube.x);
meshCube.y = (sector.y * 125000) + (10 * cube.y);
meshCube.z = (sector.z * 125000) + (10 * cube.z);
trace("This cube touches air..rendering");
viewport.scene.addChild(meshCube);
}
}
}
}
private function checkForAir(point:Vector3D):Boolean
{
var returnValue:Boolean = new Boolean(false);
var index:int = allCubes.indexOf(point);
if (index > -1)
{
if (allCubes[index].color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
returnValue = true;
}
}
return returnValue;
}
Nothing happens. I get no cubes (letting it run for about 2 minutes) that have an air block next to them using a 3DVevtor. So, I try iterating through all my cubes again while fetching a list of cubes that are "next" to my current cube. I do this by comparing each cube to each other vs a stored 3DVector in my Sector class.
public function renderSector(sector:Sector):void
{
//Render only things touching air.
for each (var cube:Cube in sector.cubes)
{
//If the cube is next to an air block and is not an air block, render it.
if (cube.color != 0xFFFFFF)
{
var touchesAir:Boolean = new Boolean(false);
//Search touching cubes
var touchingCubes:Vector.<Cube> = new Vector.<Cube>();
for each (var possibleCube:Cube in sector.cubes)
{
if ((possibleCube.x == cube.x + 1 && possibleCube.y == cube.y && possibleCube.z == cube.z) ||
(possibleCube.y == cube.y + 1 && possibleCube.x == cube.x && possibleCube.z == cube.z) ||
(possibleCube.z == cube.z + 1 && possibleCube.x == cube.x && possibleCube.y == cube.y) ||
(possibleCube.x == cube.x - 1 && possibleCube.y == cube.y && possibleCube.z == cube.z) ||
(possibleCube.y == cube.y - 1 && possibleCube.x == cube.x && possibleCube.z == cube.z) ||
(possibleCube.z == cube.z - 1 && possibleCube.x == cube.x && possibleCube.y == cube.y))
{
touchingCubes.push(possibleCube);
}
}
for each (var touchingCube:Cube in touchingCubes)
{
if (touchingCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
if (touchesAir)
{
var meshCube:Mesh = new Mesh(new CubeGeometry(10, 10, 10), new ColorMaterial(cube.color));
meshCube.x = (sector.x * 125000) + (10 * cube.x);
meshCube.y = (sector.y * 125000) + (10 * cube.y);
meshCube.z = (sector.z * 125000) + (10 * cube.z);
trace("This cube touches air..rendering");
viewport.scene.addChild(meshCube);
}
}
}
It works..but it takes about 15 seconds for it to find one....The current spec of the Sector is a plane of 50x25x50 grass colored blocks. So this would take a while..
My first method (and oh man was this about an hour+ of brainstorming back) was to fetch the positions of each cube that [i]would[/i] be next to my main cube by basing it on the render order in my world generator function. [Seen below]
public static function generateSector(type:String, position:Vector3D):Sector
{
var returnSector:Sector;
var grassArray:Vector.<uint> = new Vector.<uint>();
grassArray.push(new uint(0x56b000));
grassArray.push(new uint(0x63c900));
grassArray.push(new uint(0x6fe300));
grassArray.push(new uint(0x7cfc00));
//Current types...grass field
switch(type)
{
case "grass":
var cubeArray:Vector.<Cube> = new Vector.<Cube>();
for (var x:int = 0; x < 50; x++) //Moving right
{
for (var z:int = 0; z < 50; z++) //Headed out.
{
for (var y:int = 0; y < 50; y++) //From bottom up.
{
if (y < 25)
{
var color:uint = grassArray[Math.floor(Math.random() * 4)];
}
else
{
var color:uint = 0xFFFFFF;
}
cubeArray.push(new Cube(x,y,z,color));
}
}
}
returnSector = new Sector(position.x, position.y, position.z, cubeArray);
break;
}
return returnSector;
}
Y building first (bottom to top)
then X
then Z
So, simple right? Based on the order of the cubes, I should be able to just pull, for example, the cube on top of my current cube by adding 1 to the index of my current cube, right? (Getting the other cubes respectively based on their order of course and catching errors for any cubes that would be outside of my 50x50x50 grid)
public function renderSector(sector:Sector):void
{
//Render only things touching air.
var counter:int = 0;
for each (var cube:Cube in sector.cubes)
{
//If the cube is next to an air block and is not an air block, render it.
if (cube.color != 0xFFFFFF)
{
var touchesAir:Boolean = new Boolean(false);
try
{
var topCube:Cube = sector.cubes[counter + 1];
if (topCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir == true;
}
}
catch(rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
//-------
try
{
var bottomCube:Cube = sector.cubes[counter - 1];
if (bottomCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
catch (rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
//-------
try
{
var leftCube:Cube = sector.cubes[counter - (50 * 50)];
if (leftCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
catch (rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
//-------
try
{
var rightCube:Cube = sector.cubes[(50 * 50) + counter];
if (rightCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
catch (rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
//-------
try
{
var frontCube:Cube = sector.cubes[counter - 50];
if (frontCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
catch (rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
//-------
try
{
var backCube:Cube = sector.cubes[counter + 50];
if (backCube.color == 0xFFFFFF)
{
touchesAir = true;
}
}
catch (rangeError:RangeError)
{
}
if (touchesAir)
{
var meshCube:Mesh = new Mesh(new CubeGeometry(10, 10, 10), new ColorMaterial(cube.color));
meshCube.x = (sector.x * 125000) + (10 * cube.x);
meshCube.y = (sector.y * 125000) + (10 * cube.y);
meshCube.z = (sector.z * 125000) + (10 * cube.z);
trace("This cube touches air..rendering");
viewport.scene.addChild(meshCube);
}
}
}
}
This one renders in about 4 seconds! Though, no cubes actually appear on screen...and the trace statement never fires. I have had no luck finding out why.
TL;DR Let's say you have a grid of cubes. How do you only render the ones that are out in the open?
Or (great alternative) only render mesh's that you can "see". (I need the meshs not merged because I have to have listeners on them to remove them or add new meshes when clicked next to or ontop of them)

Answer 1

You know those moments when you forget to sleep and then you forget to add counters to your for each loops since you're referencing a counter inside of it?
counter = sector.cubes.indexOf(cube);
Need to make sure that the counter (which I should rename indexItem) matched the index of the current cube that I was running through inside my conditional that checks to see if the cube is "air" or not.
Of course, now I'm getting a resource limit error but this can be fixed by reducing the sector size and combining a few meshes.
[Fault] exception, information=Error: Error #3691: Resource limit for this resource type exceeded.